Is Chocolate Good For Côte d’Ivoire? When thinking of chocolate foods like candy bars, cookies, cakes and other sweets, most people think of the sugary, savory taste that this delicious treat has. Most people in America would consume these kinds of things by getting a chocolate foodstuffs by purchasing it as a pre-made dessert, or ground up cocoa from a supermarket. For you, it’s easy to obtain chocolate products and most don’t think much of it. Have you ever considered where or how cocoa has been able to get to you, the consumer? Half way across, a small third world country located in Western Africa called Côte d’Ivoire. Côte d’Ivoire is a large core producer for cocoa since the 19th century, when the French colonized the country and started growing and harvesting cocoa. Because of this, Côte d’Ivoire’s people has kept growing this crop, and has become the main source of cocoa, providing 38% of all the world’s cocoa. Unfortunately, two wars fell on this country in the span of 2002 to 2011 that has reduced the amount of cocoa trees. Now, the current trees are at the end of their lifetime, and are producing less and less. Côte d’Ivoire has been considering if they should continue the harvesting …show more content…
According to Alexander Simons of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, $2,730,000,000 worth of cocoa beans was exported in 2013 alone. Even though that's only 8% of the GDP of Côte d’Ivoire, that was data back in 2013. The chances of that number increasing as the years go on has been even more likely since 2015, when Côte d’Ivoire built their first cocoa producing factory. About 15% of profits from the chocolate industry go to processors, and if Côte d’Ivoire starts more processing business, they could increase their proceeds from 10% of chocolate sales to 25%, and both their GDP and jobs would increase, making the country economically and financially soar higher to a more wealthier